𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕠𝕟 || 𝘢 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺𝘧𝘪𝘤

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕖‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

"Hey, kids, wanna play a game?" Johnny almost jumped upon hearing the elf behind him, but he turned around to be met with a female elf smiling brightly. She was holding up a deck of cards.

"Do we have time?" Johnny asked.

"Of course!" The elf chirped; in fact, she was very birdlike in general, flitting around on the tips of her toes, speaking with a high pitched voice, and a very pinched nose tip. "There's always a bit of time to kill on Christmas Eve when no one is working."

As if he and his friends had already said yes, the elf settled herself on the icy ground, criss-crossing her legs. Shrugging, Ananya sat down with her, so Johnny– with a large smile, as always– and Harvey sat down as well.

"I'm Jangle, by the way." The elf introduced herself as she shuffled her deck of cards. "I already know who you guys are, so no need to tell me; I work in the Naughty and Nice Hall, so I know everyone's name. Do you want to play Go Fish or Crazy Eights?"

Jangle talked so fast, it took Johnny a minute to comprehend what she was saying, but he–and his two friends– placed votes for Go Fish.

"Wonderful idea!" She exclaims as she starts to hand out five cards to herself and them. Johnny made sure to keep his cads angled away from the others, smiling at the designs on the cards. The backs of the cards were an intricate pattern in colors of red, green, and white. It was a mandala design, full of holly leaves, snowflakes, and Christmas trees.

Half of the number cards had green backgrounds with red numbers and the other half had red backgrounds with green numbers. The suits were unlike those of a regular deck; there were holly berries, Christmas trees, gingerbread men, and snowflakes. The royalty cards were all wearing Santa hats; the jack card held a candy cane, the queen a poinsettia flower, and the king a mug of steaming hot chocolate. The jokers had been put aside, but the joker was in a red and white suit, but instead of having a regular Santa Hat, the singular hat had 5 different tips. The Joker was juggling small presents instead of balls.

"I'll go first," Jangle volunteered herself and turned to Johnny. "Do you have a 5?"

He did not in fact have a five. "Go fish."

Jangle drew from the deck, and nodded for Johnny to go next. Looking down at his hands, he had a Jack, King, Queen, a 7, and a 3. He looked over to Harvey, who was likely bending the cards with how he curved them to hide away from the others.

"Harvey, do you have a seven?"

Harvey almost downright pouted as he handed over his seven. Johnny gave him an apologetic smile as he set his match aside on the icy ground, making sure they didn't slide away; thankfully, the North Pole wasn't very windy, at least not tonight.

Looking over at Anaua, he next asked, "An, do you have a Queen?"

"Go fish!" Ananya said, bouncing on her bent legs happily.

Johnny pulled from the deck, adding a six to his hand. He lost his Jack and his three before it was his turn again; both cards had been lost to Harvey, much to the boy's pleasure; his almost smug smile had been bright against his dark skin.

"So, Harvey," Jangle questioned in between turns. "Have you just been loving the new pool at your new place?"

Johnny watched Harvey shrug. "It's OK. I miss the friends I had at the old one, though."

Jangle took a minute to respond as she gave Ananya a nine. "That's understandable. They miss you too, I know. But you can call your old friends and make new friends, and that's amazing I think."

Harvey seemed to ponder her words, and didn't respond, so Jangle turned to Johnny. "Do you have an eight?"

"Go fish." He told her. As she drew from the deck, he asked Ananya for a five, only to be told go fish. Nanya was now asking Harv for a card, so Jangle took the time to initiate a conversation with Johnny.